Constantine, Blaise and Rao

Here's how this works: I finish reading something, and I tell you about it, and I try not to bore you to death. Today: reviews of Hellblazer: Tainted Love (DC/Vertigo, 1998), Modesty Blaise: Yellowstone Booty (Titan, 2008) and Sand Land (Viz, 2004).



In many of DC's contemporary collected editions, a little work on the part of some editors is sorely missed. This one, assembled before their line got so slapdash, is reader-friendly to the point of including an introduction, explaining recent events in the life of John Constantine, the powerful English mystic and con man, who, in these six stories by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, has hit rock bottom after his girlfriend Kit has left him. Constantine is easy prey for the vampires and demons who've got a grudge when he's homeless and drunk. I'm not sure that this is in any way a good introduction to the character - for Ennis-written Hellblazer, you want Dangerous Habits or Damnation's Flame, I think - but it feels like some effort and love went into this volume. The story about Kit going home to her sister in Northern Ireland is a truly beautiful piece of writing, glowing with a love of family and community. Recommended for mature readers familiar with the character.



Now I'm certain that all of you reading this have taken my advice and started reading Modesty Blaise, right? Good. Well, since there's very little continuity in the series, you can probably give this one a miss until later on. Oh, it isn't bad, don't get me wrong, but the second story, in which Peter O'Donnell gives a little too much credence to the "mystic powers of the martial arts" malarkey, brings an otherwise thrilling story of an old enemy springing a trap in Cambodia to such a damp climax that you can't help but feel a little cheated. Anyway, this reprints another 14 months of the strip, from 1978-79 and gives you the last two stories illustrated by Enric Romero before he took a hiatus to draw Axa, and the first one handled by John Burns, better known for his work painting Judge Dredd and Nikolai Dante. If you like Burns's painted art, you will really like his linework, which I find even more agreeable. Recommended for readers pretty familiar with the character.



Very, very fun stuff! Akira Toriyama is best known around the Hipster Pad for Dr. Slump, but he's best known everywhere else for Dragon Ball, a strip so phenomenally successful in Japan that it elevated Toriyama to the very rare position of being able to do whatever the heck he wants in comics and not have to sign long-term contracts to keep producing stuff every week in order to also sell the things his heart's really in. So from what I gather, he sold Shonen Jump the concept as a 14-week, fast-paced serial with a definite beginning and end. While I'm certain the magazine would prefer a 14-year Toriyama strip which they could then turn into a huge line of books, they ran the series in the summer of 2000. It's about a retired general in an arid wasteland ruled by a fat, corrupt king who asks a pair of wisecracking demons to help him find a fabled water source. The three of them steal a tank and make their way south while the military and some bizarre criminals try to stop them.

You can tell there's the background here for something that could have run a lot longer, but Toriyama resisted the opportunity for the long-winded "power-up" fights that made Dragon Ball so agonizing, and just kept to the meat of his story. It's lean, fast-paced and very funny, with goofball characters and unexpected comic twists, suggesting what Dragon Ball might have been had the pressure and the money not been so great as to keep him and his studio working on it so long past its sell-by date.

Wikipedia suggests that Sand Land has been the last comic project for Toriyama in some time, and the only one of his short post-Dragon Ball series to be collected in English, though I'm optimistic we'll see the mid-90s Dr. Slump Returns, But Only for a Little While after Viz finishes that series' original run. I understand he's wealthy enough to not have to draw comics anymore, but damn, he's too talented to stay retired, don't you think? Recommended!

(Originally posted July 04, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Secondhand bookstore edition with Liberty Meadows and Modesty Blaise

Here's how this works: I finish reading something, and I tell you about it, and I try not to bore you to death. Today: reviews of Liberty Meadows: Eden (Image, 2006) and Modesty Blaise: Bad Suki (Titan, 2005).



I've been curious about Liberty Meadows for a long time, since Frank Cho's art is so wonderful. While he is currently spinning his wheels illustrating turgid Brian Bendis superhero stories for Marvel, he used to draw this newspaper strip about life in an animal sanctuary where the vets are surrounded by a supporting cast of loudmouthed lunatics. The strip eventually evolved into a comic book which Image published, and later repackaged in these handsome, oversized editions. So I found a used copy of Eden in Nashville last month, and my kids adored it, and it's easy to see why it appeals to younger readers. Personally, I didn't see much here that Berke Breathed hadn't already covered. Even the animals' speech patterns reminded me of the critters from Bloom County.

At its best, Liberty Meadows offers some surprises and cultural in-jokes. At its worst, it follows a vet named Frank who can't find the moxie to ask the gorgeous Brandy out, and that tedious subplot gets old instantly. We may call Charlie Brown wishy-washy, but at least he tried to kick that football, you know? On the other hand, if you're a dog lover, you'll probably adore this book. A subplot about a duck named Tyler and his bestest buddy, a non-speaking wiener dog called Oscar is so darn cute I had to brush my teeth afterwards. Recommended if you like children or small dogs.



Of all the Titan reprint series, I get all but two. Modesty Blaise is not on my pull list simply because I find secondhand copies of them practically everywhere. I found this for $10 at Acapella in Little Five Points last month, for instance. Bad Suki is the fifth of the series, and reprints a trio of (about) five-month serials. Of them, the title story is surprisingly the first Modesty Blaise adventure that I have not enjoyed. It's just incredibly dated, and while Peter O'Donnell's incredibly detailed research almost always brings his locations, scenarios and deathtraps to life, this look at Swinging London's drug culture feels as awkward as "Hollywood hippies" from an old Jack Webb show.

The other two stories are very solid and have aged well, and it's always thrilling to see just how well O'Donnell and Holdaway choreographed their fight scenes. A gun battle in "The Galley Slaves" goes on for several utterly absorbing pages and serves as an excellent climax to a great, unpredictable storyline. It's two-thirds' fabulous, at any rate. I certainly recommend Modesty Blaise to anybody looking for classic pulp adventure, but perhaps one of the other editions might be a better introduction to the character than this one.

(Originally posted May 7, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Modesty Blaise: Death Trap

Here's how this works: I finish reading something, and I tell you about it, and I try not to bore you to death.



Another thirteen months of the Modesty Blaise newspaper strip (1976-78) are reprinted here. "The Vanishing Dollybirds" features a remarkable hired killer who reminds me of Camp Freddy from The Italian Job! The storytelling is solid, though this is towards the end of Enrique Romero's first run and as much as I like his stuff, I'm ready for the change in the next book. It's a good introductory volume, I suppose, though there isn't anything as "wow"-heavy as some of the earlier books. Recommended.

(Originally posted January 27, 2008 at hipsterdad's LJ.)

Modesty Blaise: Mister Sun

Here's how this works: I finish reading a comic collection, and I tell you about it, and I try not to go on too long.



The second of Titan's current line of Modesty Blaise reprints, this collects the fourth, fifth and sixth of her serials, including a great story where an old foe devises a nasty revenge and one with a genuinely twisted couple which really must have pushed the envelope for what was acceptable in a 1960s newspaper strip. Eye-popping stuff, and highly recommended.

(Originally posted September 25, 2007 at hipsterdad's LJ.)